In a report released Thursday, the Denver Auditor's office says the Denver Police Department lacks planning and infrastructure to improve staffing and community policing. The report says DPD faces low morale and needs to improve efforts to recruit women and build trust with communities.
"Denver's police department needs a clear plan to address community policing efforts, recruiting, low morale, and loss of officers -- especially among women and people of color," said Auditor Timothy O'Brien in a statement Thursday.
The audit report comes after years of scrutiny over DPD and policing in the U.S. more broadly. Denver has paid more than $3 million in 2023 in settlements involving police misconduct claims, many dating back to the 2020 George Floyd protests.
The report says DPD needs a strategic plan to improve community policing.
Community policing is an approach to policing that involves building relationships with community members through events and time set aside to interact with neighborhood residents. The audit report said DPD lacks a strategic approach to community policing, and that officers should spend 35% of their work day on community policing efforts rather than responding to calls.
"Department leaders assert that they cannot formalize a community policing plan because it isn't measurable, but policing best practices recommend such specific strategic planning and the U.S. Department of Justice has helped other cities formalize such plans," wrote O'Brien in a statement Thursday. "Meanwhile, staffing shortages make it difficult for the police department to commit officers' time to proactive community policing efforts."
The auditor's office also says Denver police need a more clear set of strategies to improve staffing and retention. The report found that while DPD "closely reflects" Denver's racial demographics, it has a large gender disparity. The force consists of only 19% women, while women make up about half of Denver's population. The study showed that women also resign from the force at a higher rate.
The audit also found that only approximately 58% of surveyed DPD employees said they think employees are treated fairly based on race, gender and age, and that only around 45% think career growth depends on skill rather than personal identity. The survey also showed low morale related to burnout and low staffing.
DPD agreed with all 16 of the Auditor's recommendations, including providing more mental health and physical therapy resources. The department has 60 to 90 days to implement changes.
In response to the report, Police Chief Ron Thomas said DPD is already taking steps such as creating new community relations and engagement roles and hiring a marketing firm to help with recruitment.
"The Denver Police Department strives to continually improve and finds ways to better serve our community and our team members," Thomas said in a letter responding to the report. "The review process occurred during a time of transition, and it is affirming to know the items I have prioritized as the Chief are some of the items you identified in the operations audit."
Other suggestions from the auditor are more broad, such as developing strategic plans, measuring the success of community policing, updating DPD's recruitment program and addressing causes for low retention.
In addition to strategic and staffing issues, the report found that DPD lacks a documented process for reviewing time card violations. The auditor's office estimated that between January 2017 to October 2022, potentially 23% to 60% of weekly time cards had violations, meaning officers potentially worked more hours than legally allowed without exceptions for things like staffing shortages.
